A Minnesota mother is facing criminal charges after tackling a teenager she believed was part of a group onboard a Carnival cruise ship that had attacked her son.
Paetra Ann Grandsberry of St. Paul, Minn., was arrested and charged with child abuse after the Carnival Conquest docked at PortMiami on Monday, Dec. 22.
The incident occurred at about 8:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, Dec. 21, while the ship was near the Bahamas, according to an arrest report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. A chief security officer had been alerted to a fight involving teens, and Grandsberry was contacted. She told the officer she was “extremely upset” after her two sons were “attacked by several kids on the cruise ship.”
While speaking with security, Grandsberry said she saw a group of kids running and believed one of them was the teen who had “hit her sons,” the report states. “Without hesitation,” she allegedly ran away from security, jumped on top of the teen, and grabbed him by the collar.
The boy later identified Grandsberry in a photo lineup and gave his account to police, saying he had been “randomly walking down the hallway” when he noticed a group of people running. He said he joined in because he thought they were fleeing a threat.
According to deputies, the teen said Grandsberry approached him from behind, tackled him to the floor, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him up.
The teen also alleged he heard Grandsberry urging her children to attack him, claiming he was “one of the kids who attacked my son.”
Grandsberry, 38, told authorities that she “ran up on the victim and accidently (sic) fell on top of [him]” and called him “little motherf—–.”
She is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in Miami on a $2,500 bond, according to jail records.
Grandsberry’s attorney, Emily Ann Hill, and law enforcement officials involved in the case were contacted for comment, along with Carnival.
